


Deeper Than Blood

by colazitron



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-10
Updated: 2011-06-10
Packaged: 2017-11-27 04:38:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/658093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colazitron/pseuds/colazitron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry wants to adopt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deeper Than Blood

**Deeper Than Blood**

Ever since he'd read the news paper article, Harry hadn't been able to stop thinking about it. He'd made calls, looked up stuff online and filled out forms just to see what it'd feel like and he still couldn't help feeling that this was the right thing to do. There really wasn't anything else to it then.

Louis was sitting in the arm chair by the window, idly leafing through a magazine, a cup of tea dangling from one of his hands when Harry approached him. He must have heard Harry enter the room as he looked up and smiled at him.

"Hey, you," he greeted and Harry smiled back, taking the tea and magazine from his by now long-time boyfriend and sliding into his lap. Louis raised an intrigued eyebrow at him, but didn't seem annoyed in the slightest. Good. Still, he couldn't exactly find the right words and for a moment he wondered if maybe he should have prepared a speech for this, even if Louis laughed at him every time he laid out arguments carefully before presenting them to him.

"What is it?" Louis asked, his arms circling Harry's waist and pulling him more securely onto his lap. Harry toyed with the hem of Louis' t-shirt, biting his lip.

"No, really, you're worrying me. What is it?" Louis repeated, his voice taking on a slightly anxious tone.

"Remember when we had that talk about marriage and all?" Harry started, raising his eyes to meet Louis'.

"Yes," Louis confirmed, slowly.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not proposing. What I said then still holds; I don't need to and you don't want to and so we won't."

Louis leaned forward slowly, capturing Harry's lips in a sweet kiss. He still couldn't entirely shake the feeling that Harry maybe did want to get married. Even if he did though, as Harry had always pointed out, he wanted Louis a lot more than to get married, so it wasn't a big deal that they probably never would. Harry let himself get distracted by the gentle touch of lips for a few moments before pulling back.

"I was actually talking about the second part of that talk. The one about adopting at some point maybe?"

Louis only nodded for him to go on. Harry resisted the urge to bite at his lip again - a teenage habit he had never been entirely able to break - and took a deep breath.

"Do you think maybe now could be that point, possibly?" he asked carefully. Louis didn't immediately react and Harry could feel the words bubble out of him.

"We've been together for six years now and we've been friends for ten. I really do believe we're stable and old and responsible enough to do this. We've just come off a tour so there won't be any immediate touring and crazy schedules for a while and we can afford to push the next album back a little. And we can plan tour dates so we're never gone for too long and-"

"Harry, stop," Louis interrupted him and Harry froze up, looking at him anxiously.

"What's brought this on?"

"I've been thinking about it for a quite a while actually. But I didn't want to say anything unless I was really sure that I wanted to. And then two weeks ago I tumbled on this newspaper article about a car crash and there were these two kids whose parents had died in it and they don't have any other relatives and they're only three and one years old and we have the room and the money, we could take them both and they wouldn't have to be separated, because that's what's probably going to happen," Harry explained, stopping himself when he realized he had started to ramble again. Louis brought a hand up to run it through Harry's hair gently.

"Are you sure this is not one of your charity moods? I know you always want to make the world better and I'm sorry for those kids, I truly am, but adopting is not something you should do just because you feel sorry for them. This is a decision for life, Harry," he reminded him.

"I know that. This is not a whim, I promise. I've been meaning to bring it up anyway that article just sort of gave me the last push," Harry insisted.

"But you want those two."

"I... why not?" Harry shrugged. "You know I could never walk into a room and pick a child like it was any better than the others. You know I'd want to take them all home."

Louis chuckled a little, eliciting a small smile from Harry as well.

"I do know that. I also know that you've probably already looked into it and found out where they are and filled out a couple forms online," Louis grinned. Harry only pouted at him.

"This is not a spur of the moment thing, Louis. But I know you'll need a bit of time to think it over and I have sort of sprung this on you and-"

"No."

"Don't you at least-"

"No, I mean, I don't need time. I do want to raise kids with you, Harry and you're right. We're as stable as we're likely to get, we're considerably more mature, or so I'm told anyway and I'm always going to be scared to fuck up a little. I'm told that's a good sign. You're right, the timing's good. If we're gonna do this, we might as well do it now."

"I... really? You mean that?" Harry asked, a bit astonished at Louis' easy acquiescence. "What happened to 'This is a decision for life, Harry, you'd better be sure' and all that?"

"You're not the only one who thinks about these things, you know?" Louis laughed. "I've sort of been wanting to bring it up as well, actually, only I talked myself out of it for stupid reasons again and again. It's what I have you for; to make that first step."

"You're never going to let that go, are you," Harry groaned, immediately taken back to when he had asked Louis out for the very first time.

"I thought it was sweet," Louis insisted.

"It was a disaster!"

"But it was a really sweet disaster. Very you."

"Oh, wow, thank you. Are you sure you want to raise children with me?"

"Absolutely, 100%, there's-no-one-else-I'd-rather-do-it-with sure," Louis smiled, leaning in to plant another kiss on Harry's mouth.

There were days when he wondered if anything would have been different had they decided to get into this earlier and days when he regretted having 'lost' time not being with Harry. Most days he didn't think about it all and on some days, like today, he knew that everything was exactly as it should be and every step they'd taken together and apart had led them directly to this moment in which he felt like he was bursting at the seems with giddy happiness.

"I'm absurdly in love with you," he mumbled against Harry's lips, pressing their smiles together and peppering his lips with kisses. Harry's arms were wound around his neck and his own around Harry's waist, the clock in their book case ticked away and the city rushed by underneath their windows.

"We're going to be parents," Harry grinned, pressing his forehead against Louis' like he was bursting inside too.

"Hey, is there anywhere in this house we haven't had sex yet? 'Cause there's not that many chances left if we're gonna have kids running around," it suddenly occured to Louis. Harry couldn't help but laugh at that, but pressed their lips together again anway.

"I think we should start right here," he whispered, his hands trailing down Louis' chest and pulling his t-shirt up over his head.

"I'm okay with that," Louis agreed, reaching for the buttons on Harry's shirt and leaning in to kiss him again.

~

"Yes, I'm still sure," Louis preemted the question he could see forming in Harry's mind over breakfast the next morning. "Go make that phone call."

Harry got up from the table excitedly, pressing a lingering kiss to the crown on Louis' head as he passed him and went to get his phone to call the orphanage that had taken the two children in for the time being. He'd spoken with the chief warden a couple times on the phone already and told her that he and his partner were thinking about adopting and that he'd call her back once they'd reached a decision. So what if he'd lied a little, he'd known Louis would say yes sooner or later...

They set up an appointment for Louis and Harry to come down to meet the children for the first time in a couple of days and Harry could feel his heart pound in his chest when he hung up and walked back into the kitchen to tell Louis.

"It's weird to think I've just made an appointment to meet our children," he remarked, sitting back down to finish his breakfast.

"It's even weirder to think that we're going to have children," Louis retorted, grinning over the edge of his cup of coffee. "Do you want to tell everyone now or only when we've finalized it?"

Harry shrugged.

"Not sure."

"I think we should wait. No need to have it accidentally get out that One Direction's Gay Couple are adopting the Car Crash Kids or something. I imagine the orphanage is not going to leak that?"

"No, that'd be horrible for the kids. Only the chief warden and her secretary know about it anyway, so there's minimum risk of it getting out."

"That's good," Louis sighed, finishing off his coffee.

"We're not doing something horrible to these kids by adopting them and making them have gay, famous, boyband dads, are we?" Harry asked, his face screwed up with worry.

"No, we're not," Louis assured him, reaching for his hand and giving it a little squeeze.

~

Four days later Louis and Harry were greeted by the chief warden's secretary, Mr. Anderson, with a raised eyebrow at the Porsche Louis had - very skilfully - just parked.

"We have a sensible car too," Louis winked at him, not at all bothered and grabbing Harry's hand. Harry barely resisted the urge to sigh and shake his head at his boyfriend. The chief warden, Ms. Simmons, seemed to be far less inclined to dislike them and greeted them with warm smiles and biscuits. There was a lot of talking and filling out forms and regulations and when it was finally time to go meet their prospective children, Harry felt his heart plummet down into his stomach and he held onto Louis' hand like a kid on its first day of school.

"Eliza doesn't talk, so don't let that discourage you. The doctors say she's fine physically, she'll start again when she's ready. Benedict is asleep right now, but you can see him, if you want?"

Harry only nodded and left Louis to do the polite small talk while they walked down the corridors. Finally they reached a large room in which children from three to roughly ten all seemed to be playing. Most of them gave them no attention when they stepped into the room.

"She's back there. The little blond girl with the doll," Ms Simmons pointed out and Harry's eyes caught sight of a girl sat at the very back, next to the floor to ceiling windows, clutching a doll and staring outside.

"Can I go talk to her?" Louis asked, his eyes glued to the little girl and from the way his eyes shone and his mouth was set somewhere between stony grim hatred for the other driver who had killed her parents and parental protectiveness, Harry knew that Louis had just completely accepted that little girl into his heart.

"Sure. Just don't get upset if she doesn't answer," Ms. Simmons reminded him and Louis only nodded in recognition, making his way across the room.

"He seems very confident," Ms. Simmons commented to Harry, who shrugged with a smile.

"He helped raise his four younger sisters."

"Ah, well then. Would you like to go see if Benedict is awake? Eliza will be wanting to see him soon anyway."

"Sure," Harry agreed, letting his gaze linger on where Louis had sat down next to the girl, a doll in a pink dress in his lap, before following Ms. Simmons out the room into another one. She walked past a few empty cots and bent down over one further to the back.

"Oh, look, he's just waking up," she smiled and Harry approached the cot cautiously, peering into it to see a tiny bundle of boy blink open sleepy blue eyes. His hair was as blond as his sister's, not unusual for a child his age, although not as wavy as hers had seemed.

"You can hold him, if you want. We'll have to bring him over to Eliza anyway," Ms. Simmons encouraged Harry, who shot her a look that he hoped wasn't as uncertain as he felt before reaching down to pick Benedict up, who blinked at him owlishly.

"Hi Benedict. I'm Harry," he introduced himself and Benedict at least didn't seem to be scared of strangers, eyeing Harry's hair curiously, before reaching out to grab a fist full of it.

"Ah, yes, he does that," Ms. Simmons chuckled. Harry only smiled.

"I don't mind."

"Li-a," Benedict intoned strictly, pulling at Harry's hair.

"Eliza?" he guessed and Ms. Simmons nodded at him.

"We should go get your husband anyway."

"Oh, we're not married," Harry clarified, sure he'd mentioned that at some point during his telephone conversations with her.

"But you wear..."

"Rings. Yeah. These are just for us though. We don't need a government official to make promises to each other. We love each other and a stamped document doesn't make that any more true," he shrugged, propping Benedict up on one hip, distractedly disentangling his fingers from his hair and letting them wrap around his fingers instead.

"You're at the grabby stage, eh?" he smiled at the little boy, who happily blubbered back a determined "Li-a!".

"Do you have experience with children?" Ms. Simmons asked, opening the door to the playing room they'd left Louis in for Harry to step through.

"Only a little. A friend's sister has a two year old girl."

Eliza and Louis seemed to be getting along as well as expected, meaning that Louis happily blabbered on and Eliza tolerated his presence, but didn't add anything to the conversation.

"Look who's here for you, Eliza," Ms. Simmons adressed her and her head whipped around to glare at Harry when she saw him hold her brother.

"Oh, don't worry, that's just Harry. I've told you about him. He's just bringing you Benedict," Louis said and Harry watched in fascination as she looked to Louis briefly and then fixed a slightly less intense glare on Harry. As Ms. Simmons didn't seem to have any objections, Harry sat Benedict down in Eliza's lap, making sure she was holding him correctly.

"Well then, gentlemen, let's finalize this, shall we?" Ms. Simmons addressed them both and Louis sat the doll he'd been playing with down carefully next to Eliza.

"I'll tell you the end of that story next time, okay?" he said to the girl, who proceeded to ignore him.

"Alright then. I'm looking forward to seeing you again too, Eliza," he continued on as if she had responded, before getting up from the floor and beaming at Harry. Clasping their hands together, they followed Ms. Simmons back into her office to sign the final few documents.

Their second visit played out much like the first. Benedict seemed to like everyone well enough and had a special fondness for Harry's hair (all small children seemed to). Eliza glowered at him a little less the third time they came around and by the fourth, she actually came to meet them by the door, grabbing Louis' hand and pulling him after her with a determined "Louis" that made Louis smile like a loon and Ms. Simmons' eyes water.

At home they had emptied the second guest room that had always been the potential nursery and up until now been mostly used for storage of things they didn't need or use all that often. Most of it went up in the attic, some of it they sold on eBay. They painted the room a sunny yellow and Louis added a light purple picket fence around the room, buying a little pot of gold colour and writing "Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." in floating letters above the picket fence.

"Because they may not look like us, but we're family now and that's what's important," he explained and were Harry a more sentimental man, he maybe would have shed a tear or two for how perfect his boyfriend was.

By the eighth visit, Eliza spoke in relatively free sentences to Louis and acknowledged Harry's presence verbally, if less enthusiastically than Louis'. Harry wasn't worried. He was just glad that she liked one of them well enough not to hate living with them. She would warm up to him sooner or later.

On their twelfth visit, they had officially become Eliza and Benedict Tomlinson-Styles. Their bags were packed, the child car seats were installed in 'the sensible car', the room was ready and Harry's heart was stuck in his throat. He had Benedict propped up on his left hip, the two bags in his right hand and watched Louis coax Eliza up into his arms.

Eliza's first day in kindergarten was going to be disaster and Benedict would catch pneumonia and scare them half to death next winter. When Eliza was seven, a boy in her class would taunt her for not having real parents and she was going to slap him and defend her dads and Harry would go to speak to the school's principal and apologize for his daughter's behaviour and feel immensely proud of her as well as Louis and himself at the same time. He'd tell her not to do it again and buy her ice cream on the way home.

Benedict was going to have trouble reading and they were going to worry about his mental development for a while until he sat them down and read them his favourite fairy tale without a hitch and they would discover he was just lazy.

Louis would coo over Eliza's first crush when she was eight and worry holes into his stomach when she was going to go on her first real date at 14. She was going to run away to get married to her boyfriend at 16 only to come back to two utterly exhausted fathers two days later - unmarried and without a boyfriend who will have dumped her when she said she wasn't sure about getting married after all. Louis would run her a bath and make her dinner and promise to yell at her tomorrow. He was going to watch her sleep for half an hour until Harry would be able to coax him away from her side into their own bed and Louis would cry himself to sleep with relief.

Benedict was going to break an arm skiing when he was ten and a leg windsurfing when he was twelve. He would pick up four instruments and drop them all as soon as he had a vague notion of how to play them. He was going to get bored easily and never seem to have a fixed set of friends - except for his cousin Amelia, Gemma's daughter, who was born about half a year after the adoption. In college, he would finally get into theater and speak of it with the same kind of fire Harry would remember talking about music with at 16.

But right now Harry knew none of that. He just watched Louis scoop their little daughter up into his arms, her blond hair held back with a red ribbon and felt nothing but love and excitement for the three people he now considered his family.

"Alright then," Louis said. "Let's go home."

So they did.

**The End**


End file.
